


How We Work

by zahnie



Series: The Vampire Job(s) [2]
Category: Angel: the Series, Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Twins, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Implied/Referenced Torture, Memory Loss, Multi, Pre-Relationship, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 02:58:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9579446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zahnie/pseuds/zahnie
Summary: Eliot gets asked for a favour and leaves for LA.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay! So! This has been a whirlwind of a fic. Which is hilarious, since I wrote the first part of this series back in October 2015. But I literally went from ~idle wonderings~ to the completed piece of work you see before you in a week and a half.
> 
> We're still in Season 5 for Angel but TIME HAS PASSED. Now it's "You're Welcome" (05x12). If you're unfamiliar with Angel/want to refresh yourself on what everything looks like, I'd recommend watching that ep and "Underneath" (05x17) cause that's what I did to research this fic. (I had to watch more Angel than that for research but it was petty research about Lindsey's apartment, etc.)(That sounds like I'm kidding but I'm not.)
> 
> For Leverage, we're vaguely in season 4, past episode 10 ("The Queen's Gambit Job", which I also rewatched because of reasons).
> 
> Yeah! Um, so I put it in the tags but I'll say it again here: warnings for mentions of torture and for memory loss. The violence is canon-typical for Leverage, rather than Angel, if you were curious about that tag. Oh! And I forgot to add zombies. There are zombies, it's not my fault, they are only in one scene (I hate zombies). There are some swears but no sexual content basically of any kind (pre-relationship and all that).

Eliot is cooking when it happens. He's in Hardison's apartment, doing his part to keep his hacker and his thief from coming down with scurvy. Does orange soda have vitamin C in it? Maybe not scurvy then, but other terrible malnutrition illnesses lie in wait for those who only eat sugar cereal and gummy frogs.

His cell phone rings just as the roast is ready to go into the oven. Eliot leans over the counter to pick it up. He doesn't recognize the number. “Hello?”

“Jesus, El, you almost sound like a civilian.” The voice is so familiar it hurts.

“Linds?”

“Yeah, it's me. You busy?”

“Give me five minutes.” Eliot ends the call and looks up directly into Parker's face.

“Five minutes to do what?” she asks.

“Was that your phone, E?” Hardison calls from the living room.

“Don't y'all have better things to do than spy on me?” Eliot grumbles.

“You're cooking. It takes longer than five minutes to cook a roast in the oven,” Parker says. Eliot winces at the memory of the last time Parker tried to cook something quickly. 'Butane torch barbeque' is banned forever, especially indoors.

“I have to go to the store,” Eliot says. He turns off the oven. It has just finished preheating but he wouldn't leave the kitchen with it on, let alone the apartment.

Hardison comes in and leans his elbows on the counter. “Did I misorder something? Man, you have got to give me a complete list. Can't assume a man just has celery seed laid up in his cupboards for a rainy day.”

“Forgot about dessert,” Eliot says.

Parker's eyes widen in horror. “How?”

He ignores that. “Don't touch anything. I'll be back soon.”

Hardison frowns ever so slightly. Eliot turns away to grab his coat so he doesn't have to see.

He's barely out the door when his phone rings again. He answers it without breaking stride. “Hey.”

“That's more like it. It's been a long time, huh?”

“You in trouble?” First call in more than two years, on the heels of Eliot owing Wolfram & Hart a favour. Lindsey is definitely in trouble.

His brother laughs. “Always. I need your help this time though.”

“Where?” Eliot has sped up without meaning to, pushing through the apartment building door and running into the chilly evening air.

“You stateside?”

The pieces come together. “Yeah. You're in LA.”

“Good guess! And I know it's a guess, I've been careful.”

Linds doesn't sound careful. He sounds reckless and excited. “Strange place to go into hiding,” Eliot says.

“Best place is right under their feet.” Eliot can hear his grin.

“What do you need, Linds?” Eliot is at his truck now. He always parks a couple blocks away from Hardison's place. Old habits, etc.

“Come to LA. I need somebody to watch my back.”

“Tonight?” He's already imagining routes to the airport as he turns the key in the ignition.

“What, you got dinner plans? Just come when you can. I won't start the party without you.”

“I'll be there tomorrow,” Eliot promises.

“Good enough,” Linds says. “I'll call you in the morning.”

He hangs up and Eliot sits in his idling truck, listening to his heart pound. Not an emergency. He can deal with this.

His phone rings, with a different noise than before. Hardison's ringtone. “What?” Eliot demands, a new surge of adrenaline making him snap.

“Hey man, Parker looked in the freezer and found the peach sorbet you made so... are you done pretending to go to the store or do you need a bit longer?”

“Tell her not to eat it all. She'll be sick.” Eliot turns off the engine. Hardison can talk for a long time when he wants to.

“As if I can get our girl to do anything she hasn't already decided to do.”

“Dammit Hardison.”

“Anyway, so that's a 'yes' on the coming back?”

Eliot takes a deep breath. “I have to go out of town.”

“What, like, _now_?” The squeak in Hardison's voice is almost funny.

“Yeah, like now, Hardison. I'm gonna go pack.” There isn't much to pack but Eliot would rather have some kind of suitcase to bring on the plane. It makes everybody at the airport twitchy otherwise.

“Do you want me to tell Nate?”

Eliot massages the crease between his eyebrows. Another thing he doesn't want to do. “No, I can do it.”

“Okay then. If you need us, don't hesitate.”

“Thanks,” Eliot says, and ends the call before he can say anything else incriminating, like 'I'll miss you.'

His phone rings again immediately. Parker. “Hey,” he answers.

“Hardison says you aren't coming back tonight.”

“Yeah. Put the roast pan in the fridge, it'll keep for a few days.”

“You said you'd be right back.”

“I know, sorry. Look, I have to go help somebody and—”

“You're going to LA,” Parker says, accusingly.

She couldn't have heard that part of his call with Linds. He was outside when he said 'LA'. “Parker...”

“No. You shouldn't go alone.”

“Parker. This isn't about the favour. It's something else, alright?” Eliot says. It's true but it's also a lie because he knows that it's about Wolfram & Hart. Linds wouldn't call him for anything small.

She pauses so long he thinks she's hung up but finally, Parker says, “Come back. When you're done.”

“I will,” Eliot promises.

Then Parker does hang up. Eliot hesitates before he finally turns the truck on. What else could he say if he went back inside?

He goes home, eats a meal-replacement bar, and packs a bag. Nothing in it that'll worry airport security. Eliot can get anything else he needs when he gets there.

He makes the call to Nate right before he leaves. “Eliot,” Nate answers, like they'd just finished speaking in person.

“Hey, Nate, I'm going out of town for a few days. Family stuff.”

There's a long pause. “Sure,” Nate finally says, his fake casual tone stabbing Eliot with guilt. “Take all the time you need.”

“See you later,” Eliot says, and hangs up. He leans against the wall by his apartment door. Nate won't tell anybody that reason and it's probably the only one that will prevent the mastermind from prying. Even though 'family stuff' _is_ the reason he'll be away, Eliot feels like an asshole for using that knowledge.

“Come on Spencer, get it together,” he mutters and pushes off the wall. It shouldn't be this hard to leave when he's going to come back.

***

Eliot doesn't sleep on the plane. He can barely sleep in his own bed on a good night so he didn't expect to. Nearly everybody else sleeps, except for the kid across the aisle from Eliot who plays her handheld game for the entire 7.5 hour flight. Even through the turbulence.

He's a bit tired but mostly fine when they arrive in Los Angeles. It's around 3am PST so it's still dark out, though the city is like an ocean of light as the plane is landing.

The woman stands out in the sparse crowd of people waiting in the terminal. She smiles when she sees him, in a way that reminds him of Sophie. White, fair, pretty, mid-twenties. Her stance is self-assured, her clothing, pure designer. She's holding her phone in one hand and a small sign of folded notebook paper that just says 'Eliot' in the other.

“Yep, definitely matches the description,” she says, when Eliot is close enough for normal conversation. “You must be Eliot.”

“And you are?” Eliot asks.

“Call me Eve. Our mutual friend asked me to meet you.” She shifts her phone to her left hand, extends her right to Eliot, and they shake.

“I wasn't expecting you,” Eliot says.

Eve raises her eyebrows. “Well, we were expecting _you_ a bit earlier. LA isn't that far from Boston.” She smirks like she expects that comment to startle him.

Eliot just looks at her. There's an arrivals/departures screen on the other side of the room. It wouldn't be difficult to figure out which plane he came from at this time of day.

She tilts her head, still smirking. “Not a talker, huh? I guess that isn't genetic.” She taps her phone and lifts it up to her ear. “He's suspicious. Call him.”

Eliot's phone rings as soon as Eve has lowered her hand. He checks the number before he answers and it's the same as the two calls from earlier. “What's going on?” he asks Linds.

“Calm down, El. I asked Eve to meet you.”

“Why didn't you just tell me to meet you somewhere?” Eliot asks.

“What, you're objecting to a beautiful woman showing up instead? That's out of character.”

“This isn't a vacation for me, Linds,” Eliot growls.

“Alright, alright. Just go with her, El. Trust me.” Linds hangs up.

“All done?” Eve asks. “Follow me then.”

Eliot does. She leads him out of the airport to a waiting car with a driver inside and blacked out windows. She gets in first and Eliot follows.

There are strange symbols painted on the windows, floor, and roof of the car. Eliot scowls. Magic. Magic is almost always more trouble than it's worth.

“This is why Lindsey didn't want you to take a taxi,” Eve says. “The inside of this car is invisible to surveillance of any kind.”

That could be useful. “What's the downside?” he asks.

“Well, you can't see out the windows now, so that's a bit annoying.”

Not what he meant but Eliot doesn't ask again. He memorizes the symbols instead.

After about an hour, the car stops. When Eliot gets out, he sees a nice apartment building: three floors, balconies, landscaped garden around it.

“You like?” Eve asks. “It's a company building but the new management doesn't know about it so it's mine now.”

“It's nice,” Eliot says.

They go inside. The building is eerily quiet, even for 4am. Eve leads him down a blue hallway to a partly-open door. She steps in and calls, “We're here!”

Eliot looks around. The perfectly matched furniture makes it look more like a hotel than an apartment anybody lives in. The same symbols as in the car are painted everywhere: the walls, the ceiling, even the door frames.

Lindsey walks into the room. “Welcome,” he says, grinning. They half-hug in greeting. “Thanks for coming,” Linds says.

“Of course,” Eliot says. He studies Linds. He seems different somehow. There isn't any one thing that's strange by itself, it's everything together, except— “You got a tattoo?” Eliot asks, gesturing at the small amount of ink visible on Linds' left forearm, just below his shirt cuff.

Linds' grin gets bigger. “More than one.”

Eliot blinks. Linds had never wanted tattoos before.

Linds unbuttons the first few buttons of his shirt to show Eliot part of the tattoo on his chest. Eliot knows it's only part of it because he just saw the whole symbol in the car and on the ceiling just now.

“You got _magic_ tattoos? What the fuck, Linds?”

“Language, El. There's a lady present,” Linds says. They both glance at Eve who has seated herself on the couch behind Linds and is watching both of them avidly.

“Magic. Tattoos,” Eliot says, forcefully. “Why?”

“To hide from Wolfram & Hart, why else? These tattoos keep me invisible to every kind of mystical or modern surveillance.”

Eliot jerks his head at the symbols painted all around them. “And what are those, then? Why do you need the tattoos?”

Linds' smile fades and he looks more serious. “To accomplish what I'm going to do.”

“Which is what exactly?”

“Destroy Angel. With the weapon Wolfram & Hart created especially to kill him.”

Eliot crosses his arms and listens while Linds explained his plan. It sounds fairly simple, especially Eliot's role. He's supposed to go in to Wolfram & Hart after the building has been evacuated and handle 'anything unexpected.' The goal of destroying Angel isn't really surprising. Linds has been building up to this for a long time. Eliot doesn't think he can talk him out of it but he'll try.

“I'm hoping this'll be a boring job for you,” Linds says. “But there's nobody else I trust to help me if things don't work out quite right.”

Eve clears her throat.

Linds smiles at her. “You are on reconnaissance only, sweetheart. You won't even be in the building when everything is happening.”

“When do we start?” Eliot asks.

“The evacuation order will go out at 2pm. I'll be in the building before that.” Linds smiles again. “Go and find an apartment you like. You can rest up for a few hours. You look exhausted.”

Eliot must have given him a strange look because Eve chimes in. “I did say the building is mine. All of the other apartments are vacant.”

Eliot whistles. “Wow. Hey, Linds, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure.”

They leave the apartment and go to the lobby. Eliot turns on Lindsey. “What the fuck, Linds?”

“What's wrong now?” Linds is scowling which Eliot much prefers to the breezy, grinning Linds he's been seeing today.

“Everything!” He grabs Lindsey's arm to keep his attention. “This place and the magic and plotting to take out a guy _inside_ Wolfram  & Hart? Have you lost your damn mind?”

Linds doesn't answer him so Eliot keeps going. “And calling me all the way out here to, what? Watch your back when I won't even _know_ _where you are_? And none of this bothers you?”

“Let go,” Linds says.

Eliot does, and steps back for good measure. Linds is radiating danger and he doesn't like it at all.

“I called you out here because I wanted you here. I've been planning for years, mostly alone.” Linds takes a deep breath and when he speaks again, he sounds calmer. “But now I have Eve. I didn't want you to be alone out there all the time, doing... what you do.”

“I don't do that anymore,” Eliot says. He's about to say more, to tell Linds about his team, about Leverage. He can barely believe he hasn't told Linds about them before.

Then Linds says, “El, I heard about DC.”

Eliot flinches.

“They were bad guys,” Linds goes on, relentlessly. “They'd have to be, to work for Moreau. But you still killed all of them.”

Eliot has nothing to say. He stares at the wall behind Linds because he can't meet his brother's eyes at all. Why hadn't he thought of this before? Of course, Linds would think of Eliot as the bad guy. That's who he always was. Is. He's changed a little, now that he has people to fight for, but underneath, it's all still the same.

“I know you hate working with other people,” Linds says, “But let me be the lead on this.” He turns around and goes back in the direction of his apartment.

Eliot staggers over to one of the lobby chairs and sits down heavily. He puts his head in his hands. There is no way he's going to get any sleep now.

***

Entering Wolfram & Hart is much easier when there's nobody around. Eliot decides to go to Angel's office first, since it's where Angel's team will almost certainly be. And at least, he knows where it is.

He's right. As he eases the stairwell door open at the right floor, he can hear people talking in Angel's office. The door is half-open. He creeps closer, keeping out of view of the semi-frosted glass.

“So, we need a handful of the woodbury lichen—”

“Whose hands? Fred's are smaller than mine.”

“That's not surprising, since you're a foot taller than me.”

“The measurements aren't standardized, Charles. I don't think it matters whose hands.”

“Okay. Let's hurry up. I want to wipe out Lindsey's magical tattoos sooner rather than later.”

“Where's Lorne with that danbeetle skeleton?”

Eliot hears a tiny noise behind him and whirls around.

“Jumping junipers!” Lorne shouts. He is standing in the middle of the hall, his red eyes open wide in fear. He's carrying a small box.

“What was that?” Charles Gunn runs out of the office. Eliot backs up toward the desk that's perpendicular with Angel's office door.

“Lindsey!” Gunn yells. “What are you—Lorne!”

Lorne take the opportunity to try to rush past Eliot. Eliot kicks him on the way by and the green demon goes sprawling, still clutching the box.

“Charles!” Both Gunn and Eliot look up as Wesley throws an axe at Gunn. Eliot realizes, as Gunn catches it easily, that it's the same axe Gunn was wielding during his last visit.

“Lorne, get up! Everybody stand back, I'll hold him off!”

Lorne scrambles to his feet and hurries into the office. Gunn steps forward to cover him.

Eliot watches Gunn carefully. His proficiency with the axe is obvious but it isn't from any kind of training Eliot has seen before.

“What are you doing up here, Lindsey?” Gunn asks. “You don't even have any weapons.”

“I don't need any,” Eliot says.

Gunn rushes him. He holds the axe too high, like he's used to fighting bigger opponents than Eliot. Eliot slips easily under his guard and grabs the axe handle. Then, he slams his elbow into Gunn's solar plexus, pushing off backwards, and wrenches the axe out of Gunn's loosened grip.

“Not when I can just take yours,” he says.

Gunn is doubled over, gasping. But he manages to stay on his feet, blocking Eliot from reaching the office. Eliot doesn't want to use the axe on him so he throws it at the door. The axe thunks deep into the wood, cracking it for at least a foot both above and below the entry point. The door wobbles like it might crack right in half.

“You're not...” Gunn gasps.

“Evil twin,” Eliot says, “I told you before.”

He shoves Gunn hard. Gunn slips and falls. His head hits the floor with an audible crack. Eliot winces. He's had too many head injuries not to be sympathetic.

Gunn isn't unconscious but he isn't springing to his feet either. Eliot steps around him, not too close, and enters the office.

He's just in time to see the elevator doors closing. He runs over to them but it's too late. He'll have to find stairs. Unless they can do the spell from inside the elevator itself.

“What are you doing?” Eve shouts.

Eliot turns around, flicking hair out of his eyes. Eve is standing behind a blonde female vampire, looking worse for wear. If Eve is still here, Linds' plan went off the rails before Eliot even got to the building.

“Who are you?” the vampire asks, her fangs distorting her voice.

“Go downstairs and help Lindsey!” Eve yells quick directions at Eliot.

He's getting that bad feeling, like everything is spiralling out of control and he'll be too late no matter how fast he goes.

He runs.

***

Eve's directions fail to mention the basement room full of men fighting a vampire. As soon as Eliot enters the room, the men turn on him too. He welcomes the chance to fight more. However, it's pretty clear within a couple of punches that the men aren't reacting properly. They're slower than he'd expect but they also don't go down when he hits them.

Then he sees the vampire pull an arm off one of them. There's no blood, no scream. The victim staggers a little and then keeps going like nothing happened.

Zombies.

Eliot gets a bit more frantic then. He pushes and shoves into the middle of the group, where the vampire is.

“Doyle? Aren't you supposed to be further on?” the vampire asks, between blows.

“Who's Doyle?” Eliot asks. He recognizes the vampire then: Spike. Eliot wonders if Spike was turned recently or if he's been a vampire all along.

“Not you, obviously,” Spike says. “So, you're that guy then, Alice's friend?”

“Yeah,” Eliot says, pushing past another zombie and getting hit solidly in the back as he goes. Spike is staying the same place and most of the zombies concentrate on him. That's the only reason Eliot is making any headway.

“How did the un-vamping go, anyway? I never heard the end of the story.”

Eliot hits the furthest of the outer zombies. He's in the clear now. “It worked!” Eliot calls over his shoulder, as he starts running again.

“Tell Alice I said hi!” Spike shouts, as Eliot turns the corner out of the zombie room.

“Tell her yourself,” Eliot mutters. Though Parker wouldn't have given her contact information to a vampire. Probably. It's Parker so it's possible.

There's a closed handleless door at the end of the next hallway and nowhere else to go. Eliot pushes on it. It's locked or blocked on the other side. He leans heavily against the door. “Linds,” he mumbles, under his breath.

The door opens. Eliot stumbles through it. He's just in time to see the tattoos detach from Lindsey's bare torso. They float up a few inches and dissipate like ink in water.

The next few seconds feel like years. Eliot can feel the shout building in his chest. He's running again, in slow motion. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Angel, standing on the top of a round platform, a woman he doesn't know at a control panel across the room. But he's only looking at Linds, who looks scared and helpless.

Something like a spinning mini thunderstorm appears above Linds' head. Eliot reaches out for him. But Linds is rising, being pulled up by the thunderstorm. Eliot grabs Linds' leg and gets pulled up too.

There's a sudden painful shock and then, nothing.

***

The night after Eliot left, Alec is scrolling through Tumblr when there's a phone call on the company line, automatically routed from their old number into his main computer. He reroutes the call to his phone, because it's nearer than his headset which he'd have to get up to grab, and answers with a cheery, “Good evening, Leverage Consulting, how may I direct you?”

“Hello, I'm looking for Eliot McDonald.”

“One moment,” Hardison chirps and sends the call to a voicemail with a robot voice. That one's for the non-alias names. Most of the people who call with those are just fishing and don't leave messages. Alec himself doesn't _have_ to answer the phone at all, of course. But he likes doing it. It's the kind of thing the rest of his team doesn't really understand.

He listens to the message after it's recorded, because half-right names always make him curious.

“This is Angel. Not impressed by what you did to Gunn. Or my door. As far as I'm concerned, you owe me two favours now. That is, if you get this message after the Senior Partners are done torturing you and Lindsey.”

Alec listens to the message three times before he can convince himself he heard what he heard. Then he calls Parker.

“Hi Hardison!” she says, sounding happy. There's a lot of noise in the background. Maybe she's out with Peggy.

“Parker, who is the guy at Wolfram & Hart that Eliot owes a favour to?”

“Angel. Why? What happened?”

“Something bad. Can you come to the office? I'm calling Nate and Sophie next.”

“Sophie's right here, I'll bring her.” Parker hangs up.

Nate sounds much less excited when Alec calls him. “We're having a night off, Hardison.”

“No, we're not. I think Eliot's in trouble. We're meeting at the office as soon as all of us can get there.”

***

“Play it again,” Nate says.

They all listen to the message in silence for the fifth time.

“It still doesn't make any sense,” Sophie says. Parker hasn't said anything since the first time Alec played the message for them.

“Who's Lindsey?” Nate asks.

Alec flicks the employee records of Wolfram & Hart onto the presentation screen. “Angel called Eliot 'Eliot McDonald' so I started there.” He changes the image. “This is Lindsey McDonald, formerly a lawyer at Wolfram & Hart.”

They all stare at the familiar-yet-different face. “Huh,” Nate says.

“Eliot has a twin?” Sophie asks. “That explains a lot.”

“It also explains why Eliot went to them for help,” Alec says, “When I was... hurt.”

Sophie winces. Parker keeps staring at the screen.

Nate says, “Okay. This is all interesting stuff, Hardison, but I don't think Eliot is in trouble.”

Alec can't believe his ears. “What? He said 'torture', Nate. Torture!”

“Yes, he did. Doesn't that seem strange? That he'd be so casual about torturing people? No, he must mean it metaphorically. The senior partners of such a high-profile firm wouldn't be able to get away with anything like that.”

“Are you listening to yourself?” Alec asks. “We take down corporations that get away with awful shit all the time!”

“Law offices are under much more scrutiny than corporations,” Nate says, standing up. “Eliot said he would be back in a few days. We'll wait until Friday to worry.”

“His phone's not in service,” Alec says, talking faster, because Nate is _walking away_ , how can he walk away like that? “It's one of _my_ phones, you'd get service with it in a _submarine_ , Nate!”

Nate just ignores him and keeps going into the kitchen.

“He could have just turned it off,” Sophie says.

“Angel is a vampire,” Parker says.

“What?” Nate asks.

“He's a vampire. I met him,” Parker says, still looking straight ahead. “Vampires torture people, don't they?”

“Angel didn't say he was, he said the 'Senior Partners' were,” Nate says. “Him being a vampire has nothing to do with it.”

Parker stands up. Her face is completely blank. “Eliot would go if it were one of us.”

It's true. Nobody says anything for a moment.

“Eliot can take care of himself,” Nate says, finally.

Parker doesn't look at him, or Sophie or Alec as she walks out the door. Alec grabs his laptop and runs after her.

***

The more Alec researches Wolfram & Hart, the more freaked out he is. He did a bit of preliminary snooping after... After. But there's so much data to go through that even now he's only scratching the surface. Wolfram & Hart is _old_. Way older than it should be. And it's like the lawyers there go out of their way to find the worst people to represent. Every case Alec reads makes him nauseous.

Alec shuts his laptop. Parker makes a noise as his shoulder moves and she's jostled. She's been sleeping on him for at least an hour. Alec should try to sleep too or he'll regret it when they land in LA.

He leans his head on Parker's. He has no idea how they're going to help Eliot.

“Hardison?”

He straightens up. “Yeah?”

Parker sits up too. “What if we're wrong?”

Alec has been thinking about that. “Then Eliot yells and we explain and he forgives us,” he says. “That's how we work.”

“I hope we're wrong.”

“Me too,” Alec says. The alternative hurts too much.

Parker pulls Alec's arm over her shoulders and nestles into him. He squeezes her briefly, like part of a hug. He definitely needs a hug right now.

Parker sighs. Alec can feel her breathing if he closes his eyes and concentrates. She's doing the long, slow breaths like she uses to calm down. He can almost hear her counting.

***

Parker is definitely not going into Wolfram & Hart through the basement vents again. She thought about just wearing some fancy clothes and walking in the front door to go look around. But it feels like a bad idea. Hardison is creeped out by Wolfram & Hart and she is too. Not only because the last time she went there, Hardison was dead. It's hard to push past stuff like that.

She takes another minute to be mad at Nate for not coming. He would have a plan for this. He'd make Hardison tell him facts until they all fit. Parker tried to do that. It sort of helped. They went over the partial blueprints anyway. The building is way bigger than it looks. The basements Parker saw before are just a tiny part of the whole underground setup.

If Sophie was here, going in the front door wouldn't seem so bad. It's weird being on a job like this, just her and Hardison, without the bigger plan to be part of.

If Eliot was here, he could just punch Angel until he told them where he was. Parker has seen Eliot take out vampires before. If Eliot was here, they'd know where he was.

Parker grins. She doesn't know where Eliot is. But she knows who to ask.

Parker swings upright so she's sitting on the balcony railing instead of hanging upside down by her knees. She kicks off and lands on the balcony itself. She bounds into the hotel room, still grinning.

Hardison looks up from his laptop. “Wait, did that actually work? You got an idea?”

“Yep!” Parker announces. “I'm going to ask Files and Records where Eliot is.”

“Ask who now?”

“Files and Records. She's in Wolfram & Hart and she knows everything. You'll like her.” Parker bounces onto the bed. They probably aren't going to actually stay here so they only got one bed. It's huge, though. All three of them could fit for sure.

“Am I going into the building with you in this plan?” Hardison asks.

Parker considers. “No, I don't think so. We can use the earbuds. But you'll have to be nearby to hack, right?”

“Yeah. I'll get a van.” He doesn't sound worried. Parker remembers how Hardison looked when she and Eliot found him after the vampire attack.

“Actually, you'd better come with me,” she says, rolling onto her stomach. “We can say lawyer things to each other. It'll be a good cover.”

“Parker,” Hardison says. When he doesn't say anything else, she looks over at him. “I'll be okay in a van.”

“No,” Parker says. “Anyway, I think Files and Records is some kind of computer.”

“Like she's a robot?”

Parker shrugs. “Or something. Maybe magic. Is magic real?” Eliot would know.

Hardison laughs. “I don't know, baby. Seems like anything can be real these days.”

***

They end up going through the front door of Wolfram & Hart because it's faster. Parker considered a zip line from another building but they'd have to wait for dark and Files and Records is in a room with no windows so they'd have to wander the halls anyway.

It's been more than twelve hours since Hardison got the message. Parker is feeling the time pressure.

Their entrance is smooth. They go in around lunch, camouflaged in a group of employees. The security Parker can see is laughable. There are scanners of some kind but everybody is just walking around them so they definitely aren't metal detectors. There are the physical guards and cameras, which she and Hardison walk right past. No one is checking ID badges. It almost seems like a waste to have the two she snagged from those paralegals in the Starbucks across the street.

They go into the elevator with their group and everybody studiously ignores each other. Parker and Hardison get off on the Files and Records level and start their search.

They are about halfway down the first hallway when it happens.

“Alice?”

Parker doesn't react. She and Hardison keep walking like they didn't hear.

“Hey, Alice! Remember me? Spike?” He's right behind her now.

Parker turns around. Spike looks exactly the same as before. Vampire-ghosts probably can't change clothes.

Hardison keeps going, which is a good idea. If she's caught, he can get the information while she escapes custody.

“Are you looking for that friend of yours? Short, angry, has a twin brother?” Spike asks.

Parker's breath catches. “You saw him? Where is he?”

Spike shrugs. “Don't know where he is now. But I saw him yesterday. Man can fight zombies, that's for sure.”

“Zombies?” Parker is confused.

“Nasty buggers. Ended up using a flamethrower on them in the end.”

“Where's Files and Records?” Parker asks.

“Turn right and then third door on the left,” Spike says, pointing. Parker looks. Hardison turns right at the corner.

“Thanks,” Parker says.

“No problem,” Spike says. “Nice to see you again, now that I'm all solid.”

Parker leaps backward and starts running down the hall.

“I wouldn't bite you! Alice!” Spike calls after her but she's already around the corner.

She almost runs into Hardison where he's hacking the Files and Records door. “Hurry,” she hisses.

“Almost—there!” Hardison turns the handle and the door opens. They rush inside and close it quickly.

“He knows we're going here,” Parker says. “Barricade the door.”

“Who is he?” Hardison asks, as they shift a heavy filing cabinet in front of the door.

“The vampire William the Bloody, also known as Spike. So-called because of his tendency to impale his victims with railroad spikes.”

Both Parker and Hardison slowly turn around. The woman called Files and Records smiles at them. “Hello, authorized users.”

Parker takes a deep breath. “Files and Records, please tell me where Lindsey McDonald is.” Angel had said Lindsey and Eliot were together and even if they aren't, they'll have to save Eliot's brother too.

Files and Records' eyes flicker for a second. They settle on being completely white. “He is in a holding facility.”

“Please tell me how to get there,” Parker says, glancing at Hardison. Hardison is staring at Files and Records.

“Take the Camaro out of the vampire Angel's private motor pool. However, you will need to find The Wrath to make it back.”

“What is The Wrath?”

“Unspecific query. Rephrase for precision.”

“Can we tell the car who to find in the holding facility?” Parker asks, changing tactics.

“The car can be redirected on route by voice command,” Files and Records answers.

“Please tell me more about the holding facility,” Parker says, on a hunch.

“The detainees only suffer as much as they think they deserve to suffer,” Files and Records says, still smiling.

Parker and Hardison look at each other. “We have to get Eliot out of there _immediately_ ,” Hardison says.

Parker nods. “Anything else?” she asks Files and Records.

“No other information available to users at your clearance level.”

“Queries complete. Thank you,” Parker says, remembering how Wesley ended his conversation.

“I'm Files and Records. It's my job,” the woman says, with exactly the same tone and inflection as the last time.

***

Spike isn't waiting for them in the hall when Parker opens the door, with a wooden stake ready in her hand. Wordlessly, they head for the parking garages. Parker picks the lock on the door marked 'Angel'.

“Whoa,” Hardison whispers, as they walk into a huge underground garage full of expensive cars.

“Maybe we should come back after,” Parker whispers, wary of the echoes.

“No way, Parker.”

“Why not?”

“Baby, we are _not_ stealing cars from the vampire head of an internationally evil law firm!” Hardison hisses. “That is a terrible idea.”

“We're stealing one right now!” Parker hisses back.

“And one is more than enough under the circumstances,” Hardison insists.

Parker sighs. Security is so lax and the cars are so shiny.

“Besides,” Hardison continues, walking over to the box of hooks holding the car keys. It's almost too easy, having them all together like that. “What if they are all magic cars that only go to bad places?”

Parker sighs again. If she can't drive the cars to where she wants them to go, that _would_ make stealing them harder.

Hardison selects one key and they go looking for the Camaro.

When they find it, they get in and Hardison turns the key in the ignition. “Take us to Eliot Spencer,” Parker says.

The car starts moving forward. When it comes to the wall, a door opens into dark streets.

“Hey, we can't have been in there _this_ long,” Hardison says.

“We weren't,” Parker says. She can't figure out where they are. All the street signs seem to be in shadow and there are hardly any streetlights.

The car turns a corner by itself and speeds up along a straight stretch of road. There's a tunnel in front of them, carved into the side of a hill. There are trees and low fences nearby.

“This is a bit much,” Hardison mutters.

The tunnel is dark and goes on for a long time. Hardison's breathing gets a bit ragged. Parker grabs his hand to remind him she's there.

Suddenly, a light appears. The car must have sped up in the dark because they are rushing towards the light.

The car slows as soon as they emerge into daylight. It's... suburbia. There are dozens of white houses that all look the same, down to their square green lawns.

“What the hell is this place?” Hardison asks.

***

When the car stops at one of the identical houses, they get out. Parker leads the way across the lawn.

Alec brings the car key with him, held clenched in his hand. Nana used to read her kids fairy tales, the old weird original ones. Alec remembers figuring out the rules. Don't be rude to strangers. Follow advice. Hold onto what you want to keep with you. The car is magic and he doesn't know if it will help to hold onto the key like this but it's the only thing he can think of that might.

The symmetry of everything is even creepier up close. It all looks too perfect. Alec wants to talk, to babble inanely about nothing, because this, this is much more surreal than he expected. He keeps quiet.

They creep along the walls, Parker pausing to glance in the windows before hurrying past. They go through the gate in the literal white picket fence. She stops on the far side of the house. Alec joins her and they both stare.

Eliot is right there, his back to them. He's in the kitchen, sitting at a table, facing a kid. The kid is grinning and talking to him. Eliot's posture is relaxed, like he's comfortable here.

Alec takes a deep breath. Okay, they found him. That's a good first step. And it should be pretty easy to get him out of here. Alec clutches the car key tighter.

Eliot turns his head to talk to someone Alec can't see. He's smiling but he looks less at ease now. A blond woman walks into view. She stands behind Eliot and leans over him. He stands up.

“Quick!” Parker hisses. She starts running back the way they came. Alec runs too.

They get to the front door. Parker turns the handle and it isn't even locked.

“Hello?” It's Eliot. Alec can hear him walking over to the door. This is all wrong. Eliot should be sneaking.

“Eliot!” Parker whispers urgently, pushing the door open a little.

Eliot opens the door all the way. The huge round glass pendant on his necklace catches the light as he moves. He's frowning a little. “Hello? Did you knock?” He shows no sign of recognizing them.

Parker waves him forward. “Not so loud, come on!” she whispers.

Eliot raises his eyebrows. “What? Who are you people?” he asks, definitely not whispering.

“Let's go, Eliot,” Alec says. He can't deal with this, this can't be happening.

Parker is getting impatient. “Now,” she says.

“Go where? This is my house.”

Alec is holding the key so tightly that he can feel his knuckles shifting. “What did they do to you?” he asks, barely above a whisper himself.

 _That_ gets a response. Eliot starts trembling all over, almost like he's shivering.

Alec's stomach drops. “I think part of you does remember us,” he says.

Parker is blinking rapidly. “I don't like this,” she says. “Come on, Eliot, let's get out of here.”

Eliot raises his shaking hands and looks at them like he's never seen them before. “What is happening to me?” Then his head snaps up and his eyes lock on Alec's. For a split second, Eliot is _there_ and he knows Alec and he's _terrified_. Then it's over.

Eliot smiles and says, “Sorry, what did you want again?”

Alec and Parker stare at him. The shaking has stopped.

After a long pause, Parker says, quietly, “We're rescuing you.”

Eliot's eyebrows go up, like he's startled all over again. “What? No, this is my house.”

“Eliot, stop,” Parker pleads.

A muscle jumps in Eliot's jaw. “I don't know what you're talking about,” he says, but he doesn't sound sure.

“The memory loss,” Alec says. “It keeps happening. Whatever they're doing to you, it's glitching.”

“Okay, we're done,” Eliot says. He moves like he's going to close the door but he stumbles on nothing and stops.

“Eliot.” Alec grabs the door in his free hand to hold it open. He's right up in Eliot's personal space now. “Keep fighting.”

“Fighting what?”

Alec grins, though it hurts. “Everything. Ain't that what you do?”

Eliot blinks. Then he is falling against Alec. Alec catches him awkwardly. Parker comes up close and helps steady him.

“It even... feels like... no,” Eliot mutters, gasping. “No, not real, you can't be here.”

“Come on,” Parker says, firmly. “If we get you out of here, you'll be okay.”

“I can't,” Eliot says.

“Yes, you can, come on,” Alec says, pulling him more upright.

“I _can't_ , Hardison,” Eliot says, sounding angry now. “I'm dead. This is Hell.”

Alec's heart lurches. “No,” he says. “No, you can't be. And anyway, you brought _me_ back from being dead.”

Eliot tenses.

“Well, you did,” Alec says.

“What? What's going on?” Eliot asks.

Alec bites back a howl of frustration. Not again.

“No more talking,” Parker says. “Hardison, grab his feet.” She thrusts her arms under Eliot's armpits.

“What the hell?” Eliot shouts, thrown off-balance.

Alec wastes a second wondering if Eliot will fight them. Then, he grips the key in his teeth and grabs Eliot's feet.

They carry him across the lawn while he yells insults at them. Alec never realized how heavy Eliot is. It's a good thing he's barely resisting them or they'd never have gotten to the car.

Parker heaves Eliot into the backseat basically by herself while Alec sprints to the other side of the car and hops in. As soon as Parker's door is closed behind her, he turns the key. The car starts with a roar.

“Take us to Lindsey McDonald,” Parker says. The car obediently starts moving.

“Who _are_ you people?” Eliot mumbles.

“We're your friends,” Parker says, flatly.

“More than friends,” Alec adds.

Eliot doesn't say anything else for the rest of the short trip.

Lindsey's identical creepy house is about two blocks away. Alec holds the car key in his sore hand as they get out of the car. Hopefully, the same trick will work twice. He really doesn't want to find out what The Wrath is.

Eliot is very willing to get out the car. He stares at the houses in confusion. “Is this my house?” he asks.

“Nope,” Alec says. “Come on, let's go get your brother.”

“I don't have...” Eliot trails off. “Hardison?”

Alec smiles at him. “Yep, that's me. Just hang on, we're gonna figure this out.”

Parker is already at the front door. She opens it and sticks her head in. As Alec watches, she steps back and pulls a protesting man out of the house. Lindsey stops talking mid-sentence when he sees Eliot on the lawn. They're wearing the same clothes, down the weird necklace. Lindsey's hair is a few inches shorter but otherwise, they're identical.

“Come with us,” Parker says, “And we'll explain.”

“Lindsey,” Eliot says, quietly.

“What is this? Who are you people?”

“He sounds just like you,” Alec tells Eliot. Eliot rolls his eyes.

“Come _on_ ,” Parker says, pulling Lindsey forward a few more steps.

Alec is watching Eliot closely so he sees the moment the memory-magic or whatever resets. Eliot's tense determination melts into confusion. “Hey, man, let's get you home,” Alec says.

Eliot gets into the car more willingly than before and Parker drags Lindsey the rest of the way across the lawn. All of them get into the car, Lindsey still bewildered. He doesn't seem to be coming in and out of the memory-magic like Eliot has been.

Alec turns the key. Nothing happens.

Parker says, “Take us to Los Angeles.” The car doesn't move.

“Please, _please_ , work,” Alec mutters, and turns the key again. The engine revs and the car starts. They're moving.

Parker whoops. She high-fives Hardison.

“Can somebody tell me what the fuck is going on?” Lindsey asks.

The tunnel comes up faster this time. The car zooms into the darkness.

There are twin yelps from the backseat. Alec and Parker look back at the same time.

As the car comes out of the tunnel into the midday California sunshine, Alec can see that Eliot and Lindsey are holding the broken pieces of the glass pendants from their necklaces. “That stung,” Lindsey says.

Eliot just drops the pieces on the floor of the car. He looks up at Parker and Alec. “Thanks,” he says.

“Without the memory spell, I know who _you_ are,” Lindsey says, gesturing to Eliot. “But I still have no idea who you two are.”

“They're part of my team,” Eliot says, calmly.

“You have a team? You hate working with other people.”

Eliot shrugs.

Lindsey laughs. “Well, thanks from me too, then.”

***

They stop the car at Eve's apartment building. The car vanishes as soon as all of them get out. Actually vanishes. Eliot shivers.

“El,” Linds says. “I'm... sorry for getting you into all that.”

Hardison says, “I'm gonna go call us a cab.” He taps Parker's shoulder so she'll come with him as he walks away to give them privacy.

Eliot wishes he wouldn't. He doesn't want either Hardison or Parker out of arm's reach right now. Without them, he feels less solid.

“El,” Linds says again.

Eliot sighs. “What do you want me to say?” he asks. “That it's okay?” He leaves the torture part unsaid. If Linds doesn't mention getting his heart cut out multiple times in the basement by a huge demon, maybe it didn't happen to him. But Eliot only has to look at their matching clothes to think that it probably did. If Eliot was tortured just for being there, Linds, who Wolfram & Hart had been trying to capture, definitely was.

Linds throws up his hands. “I don't know! I wanted... and you have a _team_ now? Why didn't you tell me about them?”

“We haven't talked in years, Linds. And we didn't exactly have a long chat when I got here.”

“Is that what you meant by 'I don't do that anymore'? What _does_ your team do?” Linds sounds like he actually wants to know.

“We help people,” Eliot says.

“Oh, for fuck's sake,” Linds says. “Not you too. All this atonement bullshit makes me sick.”

“I don't care how you feel about it,” Eliot says, starting to get angry. “It's what we do.”

Linds just shakes his head.

“Linds,” Eliot says, lowering his voice. “Don't go for vengeance. It doesn't help.”

“You seemed fine with helping me yesterday. Or two days ago or last week or however long ago it was we got caught.”

“I'm not helping you anymore,” Eliot says. He turns and walks away from Linds.

***

“This is Angel. Not impressed by what you did to Gunn. Or my door. As far as I'm concerned, you owe me two favours now. That is, if you get this message after the Senior Partners are done torturing you and Lindsey.”

Eliot almost laughs as the voicemail message stops playing. “Hardison,” he says. “How did you decide I was in trouble from _that_?”

“Really?” Hardison asks. “Because Angel says very clearly that you were being tortured.”

“Yeah, in a joking way. He probably doesn't even know what happened to us.” Eliot shakes his head. “I don't blame Nate for thinking it was nothing.”

“What if it was one of us that he was joking about?” Parker asks.

The leftover laughter dies in Eliot's throat. He refuses to imagine her or Hardison in his place.

“Yeah, I thought so,” Hardison says. His voice is gentle. “How come we're worth more than you?”

“I can take it,” Eliot says.

Parker sits down on the bed close to Eliot. They're in a hotel room with one huge bed, apparently where his rescue was planned. They haven't talked about whether they're going to fly back to Boston tonight or not.

Hardison sits down on his other side. “You're important, E,” he says. “And we'll always take messages like that seriously.”

Eliot sighs.

“And you can yell at us when we're wrong,” Parker says, nudging Eliot in the side.

“I will,” Eliot says.

“Okay,” Hardison says. “Now that's settled, are you hungry? We can go for dinner. Anywhere you want.”

“I'd rather stay here,” Eliot says. Crowds and noise sound terrible right now, even for good food.

“Room service!” Parker bounces on the bed.

Hardison makes the order. Parker turns on the TV and flicks through channels. She can't settle on any of them for long.

Eliot just sits. It helps to have the other two to focus on, rather than his own thoughts.

Parker turns the TV off with a groan. “Everything is boring,” she tells Eliot.

“How about you tell me how you found me?” he asks.

Parker launches into the story. Hardison adds things in occassionally.

“And then the car brought us right to you,” Parker says. “How come the memory thing didn't work on you all the way?”

Eliot wasn't expecting the question so he answers without thinking. “Had something similar happen to me before.”

“Like, got detained in magical suburbia before or had memory spells on you before?” Hardison asks, like he's expecting a joke.

“ _Neither_ , Hardison, come on,” Eliot snaps. The next words are harder to find. “Drugs,” he said finally. “They used drugs on me to make me forget and make me give them information.”

“Oh,” Hardison says, and there's an awkward silence.

“And I knew it wasn't right,” Eliot says. “The house and the... the kid and everything all perfect like that. I'm never going to have a fucking white picket fence.”

Parker says, “That place was creepy. I wouldn't want to live there.”

“It's what people are supposed to want,” Eliot says. “Good house, good life.”

“I don't want what people are supposed to want,” Parker says. “I never have.”

“Me neither,” Hardison says.

Eliot runs his hand through his hair. “Yeah, I wouldn't want it now, that's for sure.”

“That's good, then. We won't get a house like that,” Parker says, decisively.

“We?” Eliot says, because he can't help it.

Parker motions to him and Hardison and herself. “If we don't want it, we shouldn't pretend,” she says. “We don't have to be like everybody else.”

“Nobody could ever be like you,” Hardison says, grinning.

Parker grins back.

Room service knocks on the door and they eat the food all sitting on the huge bed. Parker keeps laughing with her mouth full. It's gross but Eliot can't stop smiling.

They end up staying the night after all.


	2. Postscript

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tying up loose ends with some of the Angel crew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like my bonus Fix-It ficlet :D

They have the lights on low for Charles' comfort. He'll be sensitive to light for the next week or so because of his concussion.

“What else did the doctor say?” Wesley asks. He and Fred are sitting with Charles in his living room. He decided not to stay in the hospital ward back at the office and Wesley can't blame him.

“They said there was something weird going on with my brain upgrade, like it was degrading a bit,” Charles says. “They gave me some supplements to take and they'll monitor it so it doesn't get worse.”

“Was your doctor good?” Fred asks. “I've been looking for more help in my department.”

“They were, yeah. At first, I was a bit freaked by the two-headed thing but we ended up talking after they asked me all the questions.”

“Two heads? In the head injury ward?” Wesley asks.

“Yeah, I thought I had double vision. They said lots of people try to pretend that they only see one head.”

“Well, you know what they say about two heads,” Fred says, grinning.

“Why do you need more help?” Wesley asks her.

Fred makes a face. “Knox is creeping me out lately. I should reassign him somewhere far away.”

Wesley keeps his face neutral but he can't squash the feeling of happiness at the thought. “If that's what you want to do.”

She smiles at him. “Yep. It's my call. Which is getting less weird to think about as time goes by.”

Charles laughs. “Go Fred,” he says.

“Speaking of,” Fred says, “Wes and I should probably go and let you get some rest, Gunn.”

They all stand up. “Thanks,” Wesley says, when he gently hugs Charles goodbye. He has some bruised ribs as well as the concussion.

“All in a day's work,” Charles says.

Fred gives him a peck on the cheek. “Take care of yourself. We'll come by in the morning to check on you.”

“Alright, bye,” Charles says.

As they're leaving, Fred whispers to Wesley, “Let's stay with him tomorrow. I want to make sure his brain is okay.”

“Of course,” Wesley says, happy at the excuse to spend the day with his two favourite people.


End file.
